


Arch Nemesis

by allthetrek



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:04:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17842997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthetrek/pseuds/allthetrek
Summary: Imagine: While meeting a contact at an interplanetary trade outpost with Pike and Burnham, you run into your arch nemesis, Harry Mudd. No one in the galaxy gets under your skin like Harcourt freaking Mudd.





	Arch Nemesis

You pulled your long, black cloak tighter around you as you exited the trade outpost with Pike and Burnham. The three of you were immediately hit by the damp air of the sad, darkened outer planet you had landed on. This planet had once been a thriving place of beauty and commerce, but a shift in the solar system it inhabited threw it slightly off orbit, causing the temperature to drop over time. One day, it would be uninhabitable. At the moment, it was just highly disagreeable.

The three of you walked purposefully toward your parked shuttle. You had met with an old contact of yours inside the outpost, gathering vital information for the mission at hand. You needed to return to the Discovery at once and proceed with…

“[Y/N]! Is that you!? My, my, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?!” A menacing and much too jovial voice projected from behind you, and you instantly recognized its source.

You turned, coming face to face with Harry Mudd, your old (and current) nemesis. Just nemesis? No. Arch nemesis.

Mudd beamed at you, his pleasant smile a façade for the deeply manipulative, conniving potential housed within his marginally attractive form.

“Who are your friends?” he asked pleasantly, looking to a confused and cautious Pike and Burnham. Before they could answer, you quipped back. “Why, are you thinking of buying yourself some?”

Mudd chuckled, unfazed by your insult. He was used to them.

Of course you would run into Mudd on a shady, backwater planet like this. The man absolutely oozed corruption; he was as slippery as an Antedean slime eel.

“Why the hostility, [Y/N]? I thought WE were friends,” he said, the falseness of his tone pounding into your eardrums like the most annoying thing you’d ever heard.

“Last time I saw you, you tried to kill me,” you stated, your face expressionless, your tone steady.

“Did I? No, no! Not so much tried to kill you as didn’t try not to kill you? You got too close to an exploding pulsar, you should know better!” he stated, still smiling. Lies!

“You exploded that pulsar! You sabotaged my ship. You left me for dead.” Your eyes narrowed as you stepped threateningly closer to him. Pike and Burnham watched you, never having seen such an interaction. You weren’t usually this hostile… Usually.

“You look fine to me! Well, a bit older maybe. A lot older, actually…,” Mudd said, provoking you.

You bit your tongue, resisting the urge to throttle him. Must remain professional in front of Starfleet…

“Always a pleasure, Mudd, but we have things that are none of your business to attend to.” You turned and left him, heading for the shuttle, Pike and Burnham in your wake.

You boarded the shuttle and the exterior door closed behind you. Captain Pike looked to you as he began to bring the shuttle online. “You want to tell me what that was about?” he queried, his eyebrow raised at you.

“We need to get out of here, fast. If Mudd is here, it’s no coincidence. We need to get out of here before every mercenary in the quadrant finds out the details of our mission and comes to run interference.”

The captain searched your face, seeing the genuine concern. Mudd was bad news. Always. Including for himself.

The shuttle lifted off and ascended into the murky brown clouds. The light of two suns could barely penetrate the layers of dank vapor that encased the planet.

Pike and Burnham smirked as you vented to them on the way back to the ship. “That piece of space refuse would sell his own mother if the price was right! Though I’m not entirely convinced he has a mother! I think it’s much more likely he spawned from some sort of protoplasmic cesspool!” you hissed, slamming your fist down on the control panel, the Captain wincing as you nearly missed the thruster controls.

The two of them exchanged looks as you continued. It’s okay, they didn’t get it. You weren’t a truly successful intergalactic dispenser of justice until you’d made an arch nemesis or two. Or three. They would know, one day, just wait…


End file.
